My children and I went to the carnival of a local festival yesterday afternoon.  One of my girls decided to play a game to win a goldfish. She held her money out for quite awhile, waiting for the man to give her some ping pong balls. He ignored her, but we waited longer. 

On our right, we saw some children sneak extra balls underneath the edge of the game. We also saw a boy lean way over and place a ball in a target, which goes against the rules.  His mom smiled at him.  They told the man they earned a fish.  "Mama" seemed proud of her son's ingenuity. 

To the left of us, we saw a tall man with a little girl.  When the carny (spelling?) turned away, the dad reached down and grabbed balls that were not meant to be used.  He gave them to the little girl.  Then, when those didn't make their targets, she reached underneath the edge of the game to take more "illegal" balls and looked up at her father with an expression that said, "Is it okay to do this, Daddy?" He smiled widely and nodded.  Another parent, happy for his cheating child.

I was disgusted, and my children couldn't believe what they saw.  EVERYONE around us cheated.  We waited, waited, waited, then left.  The man running the game kept giving balls to everyone except us, so we finally took our money elsewhere.

When you're in the middle of a real-life situation like that, you learn a lot.  I know what the other children learned, but here's what mine came away with:

Lesson #1: Everyone is tempted.
Lesson #2: Temptation does not mean that you should do it - even if it would be easy.
Lesson #3: Even when everyone else cheats, you should not.
Lesson #4: Being good isn't always fun or rewarded.
Lesson #5: This mom values integrity over winning.